Reporting back from elsewhere… the GSI 11 wifi issue was resolved for me with this: [GUIDE][ROOT] Unlocking and Improving Your Lenovo ThinkSmart View (CD-18781Y) | Page 4 | XDA Forums
With that, I now have Fully Kiosk turning the screen back on with motion detection. @Endlessvoid I was also able to recreate your voice assistant setup using Automate. Not bad! Ordered another one, price is starting to creep back up…
Can’t wait to put a banner in OP saying:
“Don’t install this, install the gsi instead”
Haha
Appreciate the efforts of @deadman96385 and @FelixKa. We have some really talented people on this forum.
Thanks @mattmon. I’ve been in contact with @deadman96385 over the last few days and he’s been tremendously helpful with understanding the device better.
As for the Mainline Kernel efforts I’m not getting anywhere fast right now, unfortunately. The most I got is still a blinking cursor but that’s about it.
I have ordered a hot plate to crack one of my ThinkSmart Views open to see if I can UART going. Hoping to get a better understanding of what’s going on inside the machine that isn’t otherwise talking to me 
Fun fact: Hot plate cost as much as two ThinkSmarts.
I’m happy to donate thinksmart units to the cause, so @FelixKa doesn’t have to shoulder the full costs of development.
With that said…
I vote to cut it up and find the uart.
Edit: I recently tore the casing off a smart display 7. there was an accessible uart under the soc shielding. Thinksmart is a different chip, but fairly similar device, so I’d think it’s highly likely there is one.
I think it’ll go back together fine, no need for sacrificial ThinkSmarts.
…yet 
While I’m fairly confident in my regulator settings for the upstream Kernel, that’s the one part that has the potential to do dangerous things (such as send higher voltages to components that don’t like that much voltage). That’s probably also why manufacturers would like to void your warranty when you unlock bootloaders. But the kernel probably doesn’t boot far enough for it do get interesting.
BTW, this is how it comes apart: https://youtu.be/wHqHFaXXTks
Trickiest part will be soldering to those tiny tiny pads to attach the logic analyzer and check logic levels.
I’m super stoked to get my ThinkSmarts in. An additional great use for these would be LMS squeezelite players. I’ll be implementing that into mine and report back on how the usage is.
Here is the EDL Test point, Uart RX/TX, as well as JTAG but it is efused off so useless. This is on the bottom side of the board. Which isn’t the most accessible so I would add some wires and run them out the unit or atleast placed so you can just take off the speaker grill.
I am having an issue with sound on the device. Youtube app has sound. Chorme browser does not have sound. Home Assistant doesnt have sound.
I have the same problem. YouTube or iHeartRadio on browser have no sound. The YouTube app and iHeart app do have sound.
Known issue with the android 8.1 rom.
Probably never going to get fixed given the rapid progress on GSI.
has anyone have issue with cut off bottom screen? i tried different scaling options, but no luck so far.
i like rapid progress 
Funny little thing i just found. I went into the display settings to change the screen timeout, and at the bottom of the list is an option called “Nerver”
Has anyone found a good way to handle shutting down the tablet besides just pulling power? It would be nice to safely shut it down without using adb.
Update on this. It’s honestly a phenomenal Squeezelite endpoint with this ROM on it. Set up SB Player to run at startup and launch the LMS app for frontend. You could also just use this as a controller for dirt cheap for a room with already existing LMS based audio.
thats awesome to hear, i saw a post, possibly by you @ctjameson about squeezelite. i dusted off some of my single board computers. I re-discovered that i have 2 next thing co CHIP that i immediately re-flashed and installed squeezelite. squeezelite + logi LMS is the GOAT!
I have few sonos, but I always prefer LMS and squeezelite combo for number of good reasons.
paired it with my old great sounding bose soundlink mini
Sorry for maybe an obvious question, but what is GSI? Is there a specific ROM you are using successfully (I see the wifi fix) and is there a guide to be able to flash the device with this ROM instead?
I’m keen to explore the assistant features and replace Google Home
Android Generic System Images (GSIs) are for app developers to perform app validation and for development purposes.
I will be converting from Sonos to fully Squeezelite and LMS based endpoints when we move next. It’s really such a pleasant platform to use. I wish I wouldn’t have waited to long to check it out.
Copied verbatim from Deadmans post on the retrogaming discord channel, here is his latest Android 11 firmware. He’s baked a lot of bug fixes into this rom, and it is a 1-step flash procedure with QFIL that can be flashed without reverting to stock or debug roms. Pasting it here for HA users, this was a fairly painless setup and includes google play so it should be doable for even the non-tech inclined like myself.
A11 Go Gapps Kingston firmware package
From testing you don’t need to flash the debug firmware before doing these steps, it was tested on a fresh out of box unit as well. Install instructions:
adb reboot edlrawprogram0.xml instead of rawprogram_unsparse.xml )